


devotion

by llien



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 15:34:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18368930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llien/pseuds/llien
Summary: “Is this it?” Riku asked, gesturing towards the horizon. “You wanted to share the sunrise?”“Nope!” Sora said easily, folding his hands behind his head. “Something even better.”“Better?” Riku scoffed, something of his old easy teasing ways leaking back in.Sora grinned, spreading his arms wide and holding the skyline of constellations. “I’m gonna give you the stars!”





	devotion

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Cosmic Love - Florence and the Machine, and a kiss for Bell, who had the idea in the first place. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> We're gonna pretend there's not literally zero days between 3ds and kh 2.8 and give the kids a vacation.

Riku stood at the edge of the surf, water lapping over his bare feet, caressing his ankles, teasing at his calves, before retreating coy and sweet. It was twilight, the sky casting the sea in the light of a star masquerading as fire, and Riku watched until sun spots bloomed in his eyes with streaks of hallowed light.

Without a backwards glance, Riku walked into the water. It rose to his knees, his thighs, flooded his hips, waist, sternum, collarbones, kissed his chin, brushed his lips, tugged his hair, submerged him completely.

Riku disappeared into the ocean.

 

 

 

The window slid open and was just loud enough to rouse Riku from sleep, but the subsequent knee in his gut was definitely the final straw that broke the sandman’s spell. Riku coughed and sat up, shoving Sora off purposefully so the lanky boy fell in a weed-tumble of limbs and muted curses onto the hardwood floor.

 _“So_ -ra,” Riku scowled, trying to catch his breath after a bony knee to the solar plexus. “Seriously? We have a door.”

Sora peered up at him with a bright blue eye and smile attempting at cute but failing because Riku was now immune to it. “But a front door means going up the stairs and they _creak.”_

“And going up a tree and on top the porch is any better?” Riku demanded, not genuinely mad but definitely wishing he was still asleep. He groaned and flopped backwards, bangs flying from his face and tugging weirdly at his hairline as he closed his eyes to feign a return to sleep. “This better be important and not you wanting to play Citizen Devil again. If you’re being such a baby about it, play it during the day.”

“Who’s ever heard of someone playing a _zombie_ game during the day? Ya gotta play at night, it’s the best time! But, wait, no that’s not what I’m here for.” Sora sounded petulant, but not guilty. Riku felt him clamber onto his bed, kneeling at the edge and shoving Riku’s legs over in the process. Riku had a queen sized bed, but he liked to sleep on the side closer to the door because _somebody_ liked to make a habit of falling out his window at odd hours and onto that side of the bed. “Riku, come on! Get up!” Sora grabbed Riku’s arm and push-pulled him.

Riku groaned, tossing his free arm across his eyes. “Come on Sora, it’s like, what, two a.m.? You _know_ I get up early.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sora said, with a tone of voice that suggested he was rolling his eyes. “It’d be the end of the world if you skip _one_ leg day. But seriously, Ri-ku!”

Riku blinked, felt the flutter of lashes against the underside of his wrist, and sighed, dropping his hand to meet Sora’s determined glare. Sora didn’t _do_ frowning well. It was always more of a pout, or a petulant disgruntled appearance. Sora didn’t even do _anger_ well, too quick to forgive and too easy to forget.

In the shade of blue-night, Sora’s eyes were dimmed to a more reasonable color. They were too striking in the sunlight, a searing startling glimpse of sky framed by too-dark lashes. Sora had a terribly disturbing gaze, and heavy brows to add to the intimidation, but it was offset by how quick he was to smile and laugh, and the freckles that cropped up when the sun dipped down to feather his cheeks. Even in the dead of a summer night, Sora felt like the balmy wind on beaches itself.

Riku frowned and felt his side where Sora was kneeling against him with his fingers. He pulled them back and squinted at them in the dark to find the sheen of moisture. “Sora, are you _wet?”_

“Uh-huh,” Sora said, nodding all chipper as if this was not a strange occurrence. “I was swimming.”

Riku’s brows shot up, and he scooted backwards to finally sit and reach around Sora to the night stand, turning the clock face towards him. He hadn’t been too far off the mark, though it was closer to dawn than not. Now that he’d moved away from Sora’s body warmth he could feel the slightly cooler temperature on his skin where his shirt and blanket had been soaked by what Riku could smell to be ocean water. He didn’t know how he’d missed it before, since even Sora’s normally gravity-defying hair was somewhat dampened.

Riku shot Sora a look.

“You can Spanish inquisition me all you like later,” Sora huffed, correctly interpreting Riku’s dry glance. “Come _on_ let’s go!”

“Go where?” Riku mumbled, then, “I’m surprised you even remember that.”

“Mom said it whenever I came back and she wanted to know everything— Riku!”

“Okay, okay, geez,” Riku said, flapping his hand at Sora so he’d move out of the way. Rather than reasonably getting off the bed and standing on Riku’s nice wooden floor where he could drip salt water all he pleased and it could be mopped later, Sora clambered instead over Riku, knocking his knees painfully together, to sit cross-legged by the window. Riku despaired at his bed soaking up all that water. Clearly he’d had to hurry it up to spare his mattress.

Since had no idea what Sora wanted — and given that he hadn’t excitedly spilled the beans yet, he probably was intending it as some sort of secret — Riku opted for his usual black cargos and zipped up vest, dressing forcefully in front of Sora. Not that Sora knew it was a competition, but Riku wasn’t about to lose to Sora over being embarrassed to strip in front of the other. He grabbed his sandals by the strap and finally faced Sora with an arched brow and a horizontal wave of the hand.

_Well? Go on._

Sora grinned, white teeth in muted light, and wasted no time in crawling back out the window. With one last sigh, Riku resigned himself to following Sora. He dropped his shoes on top Sora’s head and tried to muffle his laughter when Sora spluttered. Toeing them on once he was on the ground, they raced to the beach, though Sora won only because Riku didn’t know where they were going.

There was an odd quiet energy to Sora. Nevermind that he’d apparently been swimming in the dead of night, he was simultaneously jittery while keeping quiet, and there was a tremble running through his whole frame. He shook even while standing still, but his grin was wide and his eyes were bright. Riku couldn’t put his thumb on what, exactly, was off, but something was. Still, Riku trusted Sora and knew to let him come to Riku when he was ready.

That had become more common since their Mark of Mastery exam. The sigil on Riku’s back seemed to have broken whatever hesitation there’d been the moment it’d seared itself onto his skin. In his dreams he instinctively knew the mark had its typical sunset colors, but awake it was simply pale white lines.

At the edge of the surf, Sora turned to Riku and grabbed his arm. “Can you fly us over?”

Sometimes, Sora made Riku feel like he was still dreaming. “Fly? Sora I can’t fly, only you can.”

Sora made his frown-pout again. Despite it being in the middle of the night, the moon was full and large and the stars all out, making it easy to see. “Weren’t you in Neverland?”

“Yeah,” Riku snorted, twisting his arm slightly so that Sora’s grip loosened to grasp at his wrist instead. “That little fairy didn’t like me as much as you.” Especially when Riku had helped bottle her up in the first place.

“Shoot,” Sora grumbled. “I didn’t want to take the boats.”

Riku couldn’t tell if it was because Sora was still obeying the old rule all the parents on the island had insisted on to keep them safe, or if Sora was somehow not intending on returning the boats themselves.

Riku eyed the distance between the play islands and the shore they stood on. As kids, it’d taken fifteen minutes to cross it by boat, though when they raced Riku and Sora could cut it down to ten. If he pushed it…

He glanced at Sora, carefully measuring his expression. “You really don’t wanna take the boats?”

Sora pursed his lips, and Riku could see he was just on the edge of giving in. Sora was willful and demanding and enjoyed having his way, but he was more focused on group harmony. He wasn’t keen on putting others out if his way was difficult. Riku just happened to more or less be the exception to that, though the fault could lie with him since he was okay with doing what Sora wanted.

“Alright, hold on tight, I’ve never had to carry someone through this,” Riku murmured. Sora cheered, even though Riku didn’t think he had the slightest clue what he was about to do. Still, he stepped closer, and suddenly Riku was hyper aware of the constant coming-going of the surf, of the sand dusted over his feet at Sora’s approach, at the warmth pervading his clothes all along the side Sora was on. At Sora’s breath, puffing against his bicep. Riku swallowed hard around the rock in his throat, making sure his breathing hadn’t somehow sped up or slowed down or was weird or different at all because surely Sora would notice that Riku was _breathing deeply you idiot just breathe._

He sharply inhaled, startling Sora whose hair brushed his shoulder. Biting his own bottom lip sharply, Riku wrapped his arm around Sora’s shoulders, grabbing Sora’s far arm tight. He gathered the well of darkness inside his stomach, where it festered with every other negative emotion like anger, doubt, fear, and let it surge like two great waves of water slamming into each other and shooting upwards in a spray. He envisioned the edges of the play island, closer in the water than on the beach proper to cut the distance he had to traverse.

The darkness fell like rain and enclosed them, and when it finally misted away they’d crossed the span of water. It left Riku slightly dizzy, and he held on tighter to Sora to regain his balance, as if he’d stood up from bed too fast. Holding his head with his free hand, Riku blinked dazedly.

They’d made it but were still a good fifteen feet from the beach proper, and were waist-high in the water. Or, Riku’s waist high, and Sora’s chest high. The thought made him grin stupidly.

“Wow!” Sora cheered, pumping his hand on his free side. “You did it, Riku!”

“Yeah,” Riku murmured, head heavy and lolling. “Didn’t think that’d work.”

“‘Course it would, you always succeed,” Sora said confidently. He didn’t mention how most of Riku’s weight was slovenly against him, only curled his arm around the small of Riku’s back comfortingly. “Though it’d be great if you didn’t succeed at overworking yourself too.”

Riku barked a short amused laugh, even though it made his ears ring and blood rush in circles in his head. “Can’t help that,” he slurred.

“Suure you can’t,” Sora replied dryly. He squeezed Riku’s back, and then began walking forwards, hand coming up to grab at Riku’s hand over his shoulder. It reminded Riku of another time, when he’d felt how small but strong Sora was, capable of holding his weight despite the height disadvantage.

“So short,” Riku snuffled when some of Sora’s hair brushed his face. They trudged through the water at a glacial pace, flowing with the currents when it pushed or pulled them to make it easier on Riku’s woozy state.

“Hey! You know I’m gonna hit that growth spurt one day and _then_ you’ll be sorry!”

“Color me frightened,” Riku managed, giggling when Sora dug his fingers into his side. “No tickling! You know that’s not fair!”

“Not my fault you’ve got ticklish sides,” Sora defended, but the grin shaping his words was obvious even from a mile away, and Riku wasn’t even a foot from him. Not even a single inch, really, and so Riku dropped his face into Sora’s hair because he could. “Aw, Riku come on! It’s hard enough with half of you, I can’t carry all of you!”

“Bet you could,” Riku said, rubbing his nose back and forth. “Bet my whole bookshelf.”

Sora perked up. The surf was just barely at their shins now, wet sand toeing their shoes. “Including the games on the bottom shelf?”

Riku nodded.

Sora whooped delightedly and with little to no warning, bent down. Riku overbalanced, arms pin-wheeling, but Sora literally swept him off his feet, arms curled under Riku’s knees and the other across his back. Riku shouted in genuine fear, having never been picked up at his height since he’d crested five foot four. He immediately threw his arms around Sora to ensure his sometimes-prankster-sometimes-friend wouldn’t drop him in the water as Riku vividly recalled doing to him one too many times for comfort now. He clipped Sora’s nose with his arm but all that did was made him splutter through his laughter as he ran forwards, easily bearing Riku’s weight.

“You were right!” Sora said, grin bright and eyes crinkled at the corners, the stars across the sky dotted like freckles in his irises.

Riku blinked owlishly, then burst into laughter, “Of course I was!”

Riku couldn’t stop, dizzy, dizzy, dizzy and drunk on something dangerously like sunrise. He curled his hands round Sora’s neck and rested his forehead on his shoulder, trembling as they laughed together.

Sora made the trek to the shore, and crouched painfully slow onto his knees to deposit Riku like he was fragile goods. Riku would’ve knocked him in the shoulder for it, but he didn’t know the dizziness had passed. Riku was quietly formulating the theory they the burst of light between had chased the heady power of darkness away, but it was a background thought, overshadowed by the strength and force of their grins now.

Sora plopped onto the ground with an _oof!_ and turned his face towards Riku. They sat with less than a foot of space between them, sopping wet. Riku could almost hear the electric hum of a light bulb flickering on. “You were out here earlier, weren’t you?”

Sora laughed nervously, scratching at his cheek. “Uh, yeah! But it’s still a secret. We’ll wait til you catch your breath, then I’ll show you.”

Riku turned his head towards the ocean before his gaze followed afterwards. He was curious by nature, powerfully inquisitive, and mysteries never sat well with him, suspense worst of all. Riku’s curious nature started half their adventures, but Sora’s impulsive one was half to blame too.

“Alright then. Keep your secrets,” Riku said, then they burst into laughter that was probably heard clear across the water as they curled in towards each other with tears in their eyes.

Sora sighed gustily when they finally wound down, flopping backwards on the sand with pink cheeks. “I missed this!”

Riku propped himself up by one hand to gaze down at his face. “Yeah?”

Sora’s eyes were closed, lashes fluttering on his freckled tanned cheeks. “This was all I wanted.”

A stab of guilt pierced Riku’s heart, but he refused to let the emotion overwhelm now. Later, when Sora finally slept and Riku would pretend he was alright, later he’d let it.

“Me too,” he admitted quietly instead. Sora didn’t open his eyes, but he smiled sweetly, and Riku’s heart soared instead.

Now it was definitely closer to dawn, and Sora finally determined that Riku had rested enough by his standards _because if we let you have your way, you’d be climbing mountains._ Riku didn’t think he was _that_ unreasonable, but he let Sora fuss at him anyways.

“Okay,” Sora started, gazing at the rest of the island, “so uhhh I popped up waay over there,” he pointed towards the side the rest of the ocean was at, opposite their islands, “and I don’t think you can hold your breath that long, so maybe we should,” Sora pivoted in place, drawing irregular donut-circles in the sand with his heel. Riku crossed his arms, wracking his brains with a map of the island to figure out what Sora could have possibly discovered that in all their years of playing there he hadn’t already seen. “Walk closer, dive off… yeah! Come on, Riku!”

As if he’d explained everything and not given an incredibly confusing route, Sora started off confidently. Rolling his eyes fondly, Riku followed.

They trekked familiar paths, crossed most of the island until they got to the other end where it was more hills ending in cliff faces. Sora marched sharply until the very edge, then turned to Riku with a grin. He joined him, and marveled quietly. The sun wasn’t quite rising yet, but the horizon was already glimmering a shade lighter, differentiating the sea from the night. Riku imagined it’d be gorgeous at sunrise.

“Is this it?” Riku asked, gesturing towards the horizon. “You wanted to share the sunrise?”

“Nope!” Sora said easily, folding his hands behind his head. It startled Riku, who realized the absence of the easy confident gesture was more telling and that he should’ve noticed earlier. “Something even better.”

“Better?” Riku scoffed, something of his old easy teasing ways leaking back in.

Sora grinned, spreading his arms wide and holding the skyline of constellations. “I’m gonna give you the stars!”

All Riku could think was _no._

Breath caught, eyes wide, heart fluttering like the beat of wings, _no, don’t do that._

_Don’t make me love you even more._

He let his gaze drift from blue bright eyes, an easy smile, freckles that he’d spent countless dreams tracing with his fingers, spent a broken rain-strewn year desperately committing to memory— he tore his gaze away to stare at the galaxy of stars, winking like promises and memories and cherished things, all held in Sora’s grasp as if he’d called them down himself.

“Sora,” he said, and in it was everything. Every fear, every wish, every buried yearning.

 _Don’t,_ he thought, _because I already can’t let you take more of me._

_Nothing will be left when you leave._

He knew it showed on his face, knew he could never hide the honesty of his eyes when he looked at Sora.

Sora only smiled, his down-swept lashes turning the expression cheeky. He dropped his arms, then held his hand out.

Riku knew immediately what Sora was trying to do. He recoiled at the memory, shoulders drawing up, stiffening, but Sora merely waited patiently.

He didn’t have to wait too long. Riku crossed the short distance and took his hand, fingers touching his palm, flinching back as if burned, before daring forward again. Sora was warm as he held Riku’s hand. With a low voice, Riku responded, “Don’t be such a dork.”

Sora merely grinned before digging into his pocket and producing two pearls. Riku’s brows shot clear to his hairline.

“Not actual pearls,” Sora said, cracking a smile. “Candy, kind of. Yen Sid had a book on it and I made them. Don’t worry they’re safe!”

There was a number of things in that sentence Riku could shake a stick at — Sora reading a book, Sora reading a book from _Yen Sid,_ Yen Sid _allowing_ rambunctious Sora to look at his books, Sora apparently deciding to concoct some strange recipe he’d found in said book, among many others — but decided only one was pertinent at the moment. “You want me to eat this? Uh… what… what does it _do?”_

“Let you hold your breath for a super long time. I think it has to do with with like...making the oxygen or something thinner, or thicker? Or filtering… bronchi… I don’t know!” Sora announced. “But it works!”

Riku plucked one of the small white candies from Sora’s upheld palm, pinching it and bringing it to eye level. It looked harmless enough, if not disturbingly similar to genuine pearls. Sora brought the heel of his palm to his mouth and tossed the candy back and swallowed, so Riku, after a moment’s more of hesitation, did the same.

“Cool! Now, take a deep breath, and jump after me!” Sora dropped Riku’s hand, sucked a cartoonishly deep breath, and fell backwards off the cliff.

“Sora!” Riku scrambled to the edge and found Sora finger-gunning back as he broke the water’s surface with a painful smack. Riku guffawed, relief melting into incredulity. “Stupid!” He said to himself.

He sighed, followed Sora’s example and choked when he sucked in more breath than he realized he could. He coughed it out, and then steadily inhaled until it felt he was at full capacity. Then, he dived.

He only realized after he fell that he hadn’t seen Sora break the surface, but once the rush of water swept past him, bubbling at his abrupt entrance, he found Sora floating easily beside him, eyes almost glowing in the ocean. He grinned so hard his eyes closed, and Riku smiled even as he rolled his eyes.

Sora beckoned with his hand and swam off towards the island, diving deeper. Frowning curiously, Riku kicked off too, realizing he wasn’t even beginning to feel the burn in his lungs. He wondered idly about how long one big breath could last, trying to piece together the vague science Sora had clearly read but not retained.

They dived several feet deep until it was nearly pitch back before Sora finally began to head steadily horizontal straight towards the island itself. Riku felt doubt begin to creep up, mingled with concern, but he shoved it down, choosing to trust in Sora.

_I’m gonna give you the stars!_

Riku almost choked on his own air supply, gritting his teeth to will the urge to pass. Geez, what the hell had Sora been thinking? It not only gave Riku _ideas_ but was definitely not… not something that should be said to him.

Riku had come to terms to what the significance of being Sora’s dreameater meant. Even now he found himself sinking into Sora’s sleep, swept in on the tide of his dreams. He’d firmly made himself understand that it didn’t _mean_ anything for Sora.

How could it, when it was Riku?

Sobering himself with that thought, Riku almost lost his air supply again when Sora proudly stopped in front of a huge hole in the side of the island, treading water with the most smug grin one could manage.

 _How did you even find this?_ Riku wanted to demand. What on earth? Had Sora just been swimming around like mad? More and more questions were piling up.

Sora waved Riku closer and held his hand out. Riku stared at it, then at the tunnel, and realized it was pitch black. Sora had found this tunnel and gone down it. Like this. The unimpressed scowl must’ve been obvious because Sora gave the usual expression that went accompanied with his little _heh_ ’s.

Still, Riku followed as Sora gracefully twisted strangely fish-like and kicked off again, hands firmly grasped.

A flash of light startled him, and Riku realized Sora had summoned his keyblade, a steady glow at its tip as he held it forward and swam mostly with his legs. Riku knew he didn’t have to still hold on, but he didn’t let go anyways.

The faint itch of his lungs demanding air was barely beginning when Sora turned an excited smile towards him and angled them upwards, and they broke water.

Riku rapidly treaded water, combing his wet hair off his face. What he saw made him gasp.

An entire sky of stars hung on the ceiling. They glowed like jewels, hundreds, thousands, surrounding them. They were so close, Riku imagined he could stretch his hand up and touch them.

“See?” Sora said, still holding his hand. Riku glanced down, and he loved, loved, loved. “This is for you.”

All Riku could say was, “Sora,” again, “Sora, I—”

He felt almost like he would cry, if this what the strange blooming feeling in his chest was. He felt like the way flowers turned to the sun, like the breeze through windchimes. He felt like it was too late already to save even a single bit of his heart from the sky.

Sora moved closer, until they faced each other. “No matter what Riku, I’ll always be your friend.”

Riku smiled and laughed, oddly embarrassed. This was easier, familiar, wanted. “And I’ll always be yours, even if it means following you to another world or star.”

As if some great weight had fallen off his shoulders, Sora relaxed, eyes glimmering with the glowing stars. He squeezed Riku’s hand, and shyly intertwined their fingers.

“Thanks, Sora,” Riku said, looking away for fear of saying too much. “I’ll never forget this.”

“This is our secret place,” Sora said, and Riku squeezed back.

 

 

 

Riku broke the surface of the ocean with a gasp, breathing heavily. He’d pushed the ability too far and he sucked in ragged breaths desperately. Eventually, it slowed, and he looked up.

The stars were still the same. Fragile and spanning the entire cave ceiling. They glowed just for him.

“I love you,” he said. His voice echoed, watery. “I love you.”

He waited until they died down, then, before he left for the last time, “I’ll be there soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's Resident Evil.
> 
> Title from Pulse - Michl  
>  _Isn't love based on devotion?_
> 
> twitter | _oathbreaker


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